The FDA website provides us with recall details through their Enforcement Reports database. Anyone can enter the details of a recall into the form and learn how much pet food was recalled. With the above “three varieties of Pedigree” dog food – the Enforcement Report for this recall tells us 1,653,276 cans of dog food were recalled. Each can was 13.2 ounces…this “Limited Range of Pedigree” recall was for more than 1 million pounds of dog food.

It turns out that this recall press release was very honest. The Enforcement Report on this recallstates that “302 cases (1812 units) 6 ounces – 295 cases (1475 units) 5 pounds” of pet food were recalled. The “limited amount” stated in this pet food’s recall press release was an accurate description – a total of 8,054 pounds of pet food was recalled.

Does size matter with pet food recalls? Was the Pedigree recall of more than 1 million cans a riskier recall than the Vital Essentials recall of 8,000 pounds?

More recall amounts…

June 4, 2015 –Ainsworth Pet Nutrition recalled“five varieties” of Rachael Ray Nutrish wet cat food “due to potentially elevated levels of vitamin D”. The Nutrish recall press release warned “Symptoms of excessive vitamin D consumption usually develop within 12-36 hours after ingestion and may include vomiting or diarrhea, increased thirst and urination, and muscle tremors or seizures.” How much pet food was recalled from “five varieties”?

Purina recalls…

In August 2013, Nestlé Purina PetCare Company recalled“a limited number of 3.5-pound bags of its Purina ONE beyOnd Our White Meat Chicken & Whole Barley Recipe Adult Dry Dog Food from a single production run.” How much was ‘a limited number of 3.5 bags from a single production run’?

A total of 29,610/3.5-lb bags were recalled – a total of 103,635 pounds. Think about that…“a single production run” produced more than 100 thousand pounds of pet food.

And another…

The FDA Enforcement Report database provided information on another Purina recall – Beneful – that we didn’t get notified on. In March 2016, Purina had a Class II recall because the pet food “may contain less vitamins and minerals than label purports.” How much pet food was recalled here?

Combining the Diamond pet food known pounds of pet food recalled (26 product amounts were not provided) with the Natural Balance pet food recall – this one recall from one pet food manufacturing plant resulted in more than 23 million pounds of pet food being recalled.

The FDA Enforcement Report did not disclose how much pet food was recalled for 28 different products. All they provided pound information on was one pet food – Eukanuba Dog Food Base Large Breed Mature Adult. For this one single pet food – a total of 211,161 bags (15# and 30#) of pet food were recalled.

Chicken Jerky Treats

Remember when we finally got a recall of the jerky treats manufactured in China? January 2013, Milo’s Kitchen announced a recallof Chicken Jerky and Chicken Grillers home-style dog treats. from retailer shelves nationally. The reason these deadly treats were recalled: “trace amounts of residual antibiotics.” How many “Chicken Jerky and Chicken Grillers” were recalled?

The Enforcement Report tells us 1.97 million cases of Chicken Jerky in 3, 14 and 20 ounce packages (unknown how many products per case), and .43 million cases of Chicken Grillers in 3, 14 and 20 ounce packages (unknown how many products per case).

Blue Buffalo recall

In March 2017, Blue Buffalo Company recalled “one production lot of BLUE Wilderness® Rocky Mountain RecipeTM Red Meat Dinner Wet Food for Adult Dogs, as the product has the potential to contain elevated levels of naturally- occurring beef thyroid hormones.”

Treats

In February 2018, Redbarn Pet Products “with an extreme abundance of caution” recalled “a single product, Redbarn’s 7-inch Bully Stick three pack, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.”

In February 2018, Northwest Naturals recalled “5lb frozen Chicken and Salmon pet food chubs because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.” In this case the raw pet food manufacturer provided full disclosure in their recall notice – a total of 97 cases of 5 pound cubs were recalled.

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Comments 4

Holy cow! Obviously BPF is abusing the definition of “lot”. A lot is supposed to be one “run” of all the same mixture and there is no container in the world big enough to contain a million pounds of product and as well, running processing non stop without cleaning for days (which I wouldn’t doubt for a minute). Which makes no sense, because as you have proven, the bigger the lot size the bigger (and more expensive) the recall. I had no idea the recalls were that large, thank you!